THE LINK BETWEEN (A LITTLE)
CRAZINESS AND (A LOT OF) SUCCESS
IN AMERICA

“The Hypomanic Edge reveals
a secret history of America, the hidden psychiatric underbelly
of legendary successes and the cult of celebrity. John Gartner
tells the story with gripping detail and a clinician’s
authority. After this book, you’ll never read the business
pages in quite the same way.”--Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional
Intelligence

For the first time, a leading clinical psychologist argues
that America’s unique entrepreneurial character, unmatched
wealth, and spectacular achievements are due to a high incidence
of hypomania—a mild form of mania that produces elevated
levels of energy, creativity, and risk-taking—in THE
HYPOMANIC EDGE: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and
(A Lot of) Success in America (Simon & Schuster; March
10, 2005; $26.00). A fresh, provocative, and scientifically
grounded explanation of America’s singular national
character, entrepreneurial culture, and market manias, THE
HYPOMANIC EDGE will be of particularly keen interest to business
people, students of psychology, and those fascinated by the
great figures of American history. John D. Gartner, a clinical
assistant professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University
Medical School, is the first researcher to offer a credible
biological and genetic theory that explains why some men and
women are natural entrepreneurs, why Americans are truly different
from other people, and why American business is unlike that
of any other country. Our immigrant ancestors, Gartner contends,
carried a high level of the genes responsible for hypomania,
providing the biological engine for our nation’s unprecedented
accomplishments.

To show hypomania in action, Gartner draws on detailed interviews
with contemporary entrepreneurs like Craig Venter, who is
directing a major effort to map the human genome, as well
the biographies of key figures across five centuries of American
history, including Christopher Columbus, John Winthrop, Alexander
Hamilton, Andrew Carnegie, and Louis B. Mayer.

Nearly a decade ago, at the height of the Internet mania,
high-tech entrepreneurs making grandiose claims swept up millions
of Americans with their irrational exuberance, inflating the
biggest speculative bubble in history. Gartner recognized
that virtually every one of those entrepreneurs fit the criteria
for hypomania, leading him to believe that “market mania”
was more than a figure of speech. In-depth interviews with
Internet CEOs confirmed his initial impression, as they enthusiastically
agreed that they had all the signs of hypomania. Moreover,
as Gartner surveyed American history, he found it punctuated
by periods of rapid economic growth fueled by hypomanic personalities,
alternating with recessions and depressions.

Mania and hypomania: the critical difference
Hypomania is recognized by psychiatry, as John Gartner points
out, as a genetically based condition that endows people with
high energy, creativity, accelerated thinking, inflated self-esteem,
impulsivity, aggressiveness, and a propensity for taking risks.
It is not, by contrast, clinical mania—also called manic
depression or bipolar disorder, which is a serious psychiatric
illness.

A small but growing body of literature on hypomania suggests
that 5 to 10 percent of the population is hypomanic, while
clinical manic depression exists in slightly less than 1 percent
of the general population. The fact that hypomania is so much
more common than mania offers us a crucial clue to its genetic
function and evolutionary importance, Gartner maintains. Throughout
human history and prehistory, hypomania has undoubtedly produced
highly motivated, charismatic, and creative individuals who
gave our forebears a critical edge over the competition and
enhanced their chances of survival and reproduction.

The hypomanic edge, however, is a double-edged sword. The
same genes that create overachievers also lead to impulsive
behavior (ready, shoot, aim) and over-confident leaders who
glibly take their followers over a cliff. Depending on your
perspective, for example, the Internet stock market phenomenon
of the 1990s was either a brilliant burst of economic and
technological innovation or a colossal error of judgment that
forced us to ask, “What were we thinking?” In
truth, it was both, according to Gartner.

A hypomanic nation?
Energy, drive, cockeyed optimism, entrepreneurial and religious
zeal, Yankee ingenuity, messianism, and arrogance are all
traits that have long been attributed to an “American
character.” But given how closely they overlap with
the hypomanic profile, Gartner asserts, they might better
be understood as expressions of an American temperament, shaped
in large part by our rich concentration of hypomanic genes.

Immigrants are not typical people. Only about one out of
a hundred people emigrate from their native countries, and
they tend to be gifted with special ambition and energy, motivation,
and aptitude.

To be sure, hypomanics are ideally suited by temperament
to become immigrants. If you are an impulsive, optimistic,
high-energy risk taker, you are more likely to undertake a
project that requires a lot of energy, entails a lot of risk,
and might seem daunting if you thought about it too long or
too realistically. “I think America has drawn hypomanics
like a magnet,” Gartner writes. “This wide-open
land with seemingly infinite horizons has been a giant Rorschach
on which they could project their oversize fantasies of success,
an irresistible attraction for restless, ambitious people
who have felt hemmed in by native lands with comparatively
fewer opportunities.” [p. 12]

Captains outrageous
And America has been good to hypomanics, as it has liberated
their energies and lifted their spirits. In return, hypomanic
Americans have been good to America, powering a wilderness
colony ahead of every other nation on the planet in just a
few hundred years. An untold number of hypomanics helped make
America the richest and most successful nation in history,
although Gartner tells the stories of just a few. Christopher
Columbus discovered America; prophets such as John Winthrop,
Roger Williams, and William Penn populated it; Alexander Hamilton
was one of a handful of men who conceived its national future;
Andrew Carnegie sparked an industrial revolution that led
to mass production; the Selznick and Mayer families helped
create Hollywood, usher in the age of mass media, and portray
a national self-image; and Craig Venter cracked our genetic
code, the implications of which are only beginning to be fathomed.

Each chapter of THE HYPOMANIC EDGE is not only a capsule
biography, but also a clinical case history of hypomania.
The men profiled by Gartner were outrageous – arrogant,
provocative, unconventional, and unpredictable. They were
not “well-adjusted” by ordinary standards, but
instead forced the world to adjust to them. Their stories
are inspiring, comical, and sometimes tragic, as the hubris
that fueled their improbable rise often led to their fall
as well. Yet without their irrational confidence, ambitious
vision, and unstoppable zeal, these outrageous captains would
never have sailed into unknown waters, never discovered new
worlds, never changed the course of our history.
America’s hypomanic future.

Gartner concludes with three predictions for the future of
hypomania. First, he observes that everything that the world
loves and hates about America—from our cheerful optimism
to the war in Iraq—is a manifestation of our hypomanic
temperament. He predicts that we will continue to act like
a hypomanic nation, sometimes wisely and sometimes not. Second,
Gartner is concerned that America may give in to the temptation
to abandon the pro-immigrant ethos that made her great, particularly
in the wake of September 11. He predicts that if the immigrant
stream ever dries up, that will mark the beginning of the
decline of the American Empire. Third, Gartner views with
alarm the prospect of genetic testing that would allow parents
to abort a fetus with genes for manic depression (and hence
for hypomania as well). “If I’m right,”
he writes, “hypomanics are on this earth for a good
reason. And if we take them out of the gene pool, tomorrow’s
Christopher Columbuses will never be born, and our descendants
won’t find their new worlds.” [p. 301]

A challenging, entertaining and original approach to the
age-old query: Why is America different?

Advanced praise for John
D. Gartner’s
THE HYPOMANIC EDGE
“America is a land settled by adventurers and risk takers,
and the mania that made it great seems to be bred into its
genes. In this provocative and interesting book, John Gartner
explores that theory with vivid case studies and an expert’s
understanding of clinical psychology.”--Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin
Franklin

“Examining an assortment of historical and present-day
movers and shakers through the lens of modern psychiatry,
Gartner has come up with a diagnosis that could well help
explain what makes America, well, America. The Hypomanic Edge
is a surprising—and thoroughly engaging—book.”--Joe Nocera, Editorial Director of
Fortune, author of A Piece of the Action

“Finally someone gets it. Through fabulous profiles
of the likes of Carnegie, Hamilton, the Selznicks and the
Mayers—my favorites—John D. Gartner explains how
brains hardwired for success, otherwise known as hypomania,
have contributed so much to the richness of our great country.
Three cheers for Gartner. He recognizes that hypomania is
integral to the success of those who challenge every assumption
on the way to creating fabulous wealth, brilliant movies,
and, yes, even a nation.”--James Cramer, markets commentator
for CNBC
and thestreet.com and author of Confessions of a Street Addict

“Gartner’s genius is to make visible a psychological
phenomenon that is part
of our history and daily lives which we didn't see before.
It will change the way Americans think of themselves, and
incite hypomania envy among the normal people of the world.”--Harry Segal, Ph.D., Department of
Psychology, Cornell University

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
John D. Gartner graduated from Princeton University and received
his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. He is widely published in medical journals and books.
He is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns
Hopkins University Medical School and a psychotherapist in
private practice in Baltimore.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
THE HYPOMANIC EDGE:
The Link Between (A Little) Craziness And (A
Lot of) Success in America
By John D. Gartner, Published by Simon & Schuster, March
10, 2005
ISBN: 0-7432-4344-7, Price: $26.00www.hypomanicedge.com